


The New Coping Strategy of Bruce Banner

by prettycheese21



Series: Accidental Hurts [4]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types, The Incredible Hulk - All Media Types
Genre: Angry Bruce, Courtesy of Tony Stark, Gen, Injury, More like mildly peeved Bruce, No matter how hard he tries to be, Reader-Insert, Some Humor, Steve is Disappointed, Tony Being Tony, Tony is not helpful, Unsafe Work Environment, as always, though not really
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-23
Updated: 2015-05-23
Packaged: 2018-03-31 22:11:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,440
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3994795
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/prettycheese21/pseuds/prettycheese21
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Bruce has been stressed recently due to a new project he has undertaken, which is exasperated by social interaction. Not long after he isolates himself from the others, an accident in Tony's lab forces the two of them to share a lab. This ends about as badly as expected.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The New Coping Strategy of Bruce Banner

**Author's Note:**

> Hi! Sorry for the long wait between posting. School decided to, once again, destroy my soul (shocker, right?) Then I was struck down by a super virus from the fiery pits of Hell, which knocked me out for about a week. But school is out soon, so I'll most likely be able to write more (no promises as I'm flakey at best :P).
> 
> On another note, I've realized something over the course of this series... Tony should not be allowed near people.
> 
> Anyways, enjoy!
> 
> See notes at the end regarding the future of this series.

   Bruce had decided to undertake a project, courtesy of the SHIELD Research and Development Department and Nick Fury himself. It seemed easy enough, but it still needed a lot of in-depth research before it could be built. This research was time consuming stuff, and it caused a rather unwelcome change.

 

   As it turns out, all work, no play, and no sleep can destroy a person's patience for others. And by others, he meant Tony. It seemed over the course of the month, Tony had somehow managed to get more annoying. At least, that's the way it seemed to Bruce.  
   
   He couldn't explain, but even the mere presence of Tony would cause his blood pressure to spike. He remembered an instance from a couple weeks ago. It was early in the morning, so early that he was the only one awake, and he was sitting in the living room refining the procedure for an experiment he was working on. Tony had casually walked in, without saying a word, got himself a cup of coffee and left. This had been enough to put on edge for the rest of the morning.

 

   After he realized just how much irritation Tony seemed to cause, he'd tried to isolate himself from the man, trying to stop a situation before it could start. Besides the benefits of getting to avoid Tony, he'd be able to work on research for his the project, which he couldn't wait to get done. It was the perfect plan.

 

   It worked at first. Nobody really questioned his want to be isolated, as this was pretty normal even before this instance. But, nothing lasts forever, and the same could be said about Bruce's makeshift, peaceful environment.

 

   About two weeks into his unforced isolation, while down in his lab working, Tony walked in with his arms full of tools. He set them down across from Bruce, then left the lab again. This caused a look of confusion to cross the face of the scientist.

 

   When Tony came back with what looked like the arm of his suit, Bruce decided to speak up, "Tony... What are you doing?"

 

   Tony sat down on the stool, responding, "Making some adjustments on the suit's repulsors. They got a bit damaged in the last fight, so they're a bit testy."

 

   Bruce shook his head, "That's not what I meant. I meant what are you doing  _here_?"

 

   Tony looked at him, his face scrunched in confusion, before it seemed to click, "Oh! Well, Clint and I decided to it'd be a good idea to try shooting one his new arrows in my lab. Long story short, Clint is going to be stuck in Med Bay for a week and I'm going to need to use your lab until I can get the fire damage out of mine."

 

   "Why can't you just use one of your other labs?" he asked curiously.

 

   "Because none of those are as advanced as I made our labs. I may keep them up and running, but I don't update them regularly. I can't fix my suit without the proper equipment."

 

   "But, couldn't you just-"

 

   "What's the problem? Is this about that project you're working on? Because, if it is, you won't even notice I'm here. Just- come on, Bruce. It'll be for like, a week, tops."

 

   Bruce sighed. This was  _not_  what he wanted to do. He wanted to be away from Tony, and people in general. This project was important. It needed to get done, and soon, before Fury decided to turn him over to the military. Sure, Bruce knew Fury probably wouldn't do that, but he figured it was best not to give him a reason to do so. But, at the same time, he didn't want to give Tony a reason to be suspicious of his behavior. A suspicious Tony was more annoying than a bored Tony.

 

   So, against his better judgment, he answered, "Okay, fine. But, I swear to god Tony, if you do  _anything_  that wrecks this project-"

 

   "Yeah, yeah, I know. Hulk smash. You won't even know I'm here." 

 

* (Time Skip) *

 

   Tony's statement proved to be a lie. It was very clear that there was someone else inhabiting his workspace, since he most certainly did not use a socket wrench to examine bacterial behavior. Or leave everything out in the open for days at a time, only to push it aside and add more to the ever-growing pile of random parts that Tony called a "project".

 

   There was also Tony's work schedule, if you could call it that. Bruce had a consistent schedule that he stuck with, whereas Tony worked until he dropped. He remembers a specific instance where he had come down to the lab and found Tony passed out on the table, with his screwdriver still in hand. Now this had happened multiple times with just as many tools (including a blowtorch... that was still on. Talk about a safety hazard). 

 

   It was about a month after Tony had invaded the lab and it was a relatively normal day. Bruce was looking at his samples under the microscope, only looking up every once in a while to jot down notes in his notebook. Tony was making adjustments to his suit, picking away with his tweezers. The room was silent as both men were heavily concentrated on what they were doing.

 

   The silence was broken when Tony let out a triumphant, "Aha! I found you! Now I just need to weld you back into place..."

 

   Bruce sighed. Tony did this every time he found the problem that he was looking for. It really didn't help Bruce's concentration when Tony did that every five minutes. "Tony," he began, "Can you try not to talk your thoughts out loud? It's not helping my focus."

 

   "What?" Tony asked, looking up, having been broken out of his concentrated stupor.

 

   It was then that disaster struck. When Tony had looked up, his hand had moved slightly to the left, which must caused something to shift a miniscule amount (or some other thing that almost theoretically impossible). This event caused the arm's repulsor to go off, sending the ball of energy directly at Bruce. Only it didn't hit Bruce.

 

   It hit the notebook that contained all of his research. This caused a (surprisingly controlled) micro-explosion, which sent the notebook up in almost literal smoke.

 

   Tony and Bruce stared at the now ash-ified research, which was surrounded by a burned in outline of the notebook that was now on the lab table. Bruce stepped forward, clearly still shocked by the events that had just transpired, and gingerly took a pinch of his research. He brought it up to his eyes before sprinkling it back onto the pile.

 

   "Bruce-" Tony began.

 

   "Two months," Bruce said in a low voice.

 

   Tony took a minute to try and figure out the meaning, but when the conclusions department came up empty, he simply said, "What?"

 

   "That was two months of pain-staking research, gone. Gone because of you," he said pointedly.

 

   "My fault? How is this- It was an accident! It's not like I meant to destroy all that research. But, it's not like you can't get it back."

 

   "It took long hours and translating to get the research I had. Do you really think I'm happy that I'm going to have to do that  _again_?" Bruce's voice held an angry edge to it.

 

   "What are you going to do, Bruce?" Tony asked, "Are you going to Hulk-out? Go ahead! Then we'll both be out of a lab for weeks. See if your project gets done then."

 

   Bruce didn't say anything, choosing to only set his jaw and glare at Tony. After an intense minute-long stare down with Tony, Bruce elected to go a different route of dealing with his anger. He elected to mess shit up.

 

   He, in a Quicksilver like fashion, picked up the microscope and threw it at the wall, where it bounced off said wall and hit the floor. The eyepieces ended up splitting from the rest of the contraption and going across the room.

 

   This caused Tony to let out a yell of protest, "Hey! That's a two thousand dollar microscope you just broke!"

 

   Bruce quickly made his way around the table and began throwing Tony's tools against that same front wall. He decided to start with one of his many wrenches, "You're rich. You can buy another one," he said as he hurled the offending tool.

 

   The wrench nailed the wall, hard, leaving a large dent where it hit.

 

   He continued on his rampage, picking up a screwdriver, sending it into the dry wall. He then picked up a nearby socket wrench, which successfully sent the screwdriver through the rest of the wall, leaving a small hole in its wake. Bruce continued to mindlessly throw tools for what seemed like ages.

 

   Tony had stepped back around two tools later, taking out his phone. He speed texted their on-call "Calmer-Downer". The text took him about three seconds to compose and send. It only took a minute for the person to respond back. He was just hoping they'd be just as quick at getting down here.

 

   Meanwhile, Bruce had all but ran out of things to throw at the wall. He reached behind grabbed one of the few remaining tools left, only to see it was a blowtorch. Of all the tools for it to be, it had to be a blowtorch. The one that Tony had left on so many times it was a miracle that he hadn't burned down the Tower. The one that had caused this whole situation. The one that had inadvertently burned his whole project in a matter of seconds.

 

   The blowtorch left Bruce's hand before he could stop and think. If only he hadn't thrown it. If only he had just thought about what he was doing. Or, more importantly, where he was throwing said tool.

 

   The door opened and (Name) walked in, carefully making her way towards Bruce. Tony had already briefed her on the situation, as he had texted her to come down and calm him down before things got even more out of hand. Somehow she'd gotten the reputation that she was good with people. She has no idea how  _that_  happened, but she's learned it's better to just go with it.

 

   It seemed luck was never on (Name)'s side as she walked right into the path of the airborne blowtorch. It nailed her square in the forehead before she could even get a word out, sending her crumpling to the floor. Bruce's eyes widened at the realization of what happened.

 

   Tony just blinked. And blinked again. Then proceeded to say, "Wow. That girl has some bad luck. I mean, how has she even made it this long if every time she walks into a room she gets injured?"

 

* Time Skip *

 

   JARVIS apparently had the only working processing equipment in the room (and yes that includes the brains of the supposed geniuses), as he had called down the rest of the team to help diffuse the situation before it could get worse. They'd made it to the lab in decent time, and immediately began to take in the situation. Clint and Thor went to check on (Name) while Steve and Natasha went to deal with Tony and Bruce.

 

   Steve looked at the two men. First at Bruce, donning his rarely used 'I expected more from you' face. Then at Tony, sporting his often used 'Why is it always you' expression. "What happened?" he asked.

 

   Before one of them could open their mouth, Clint stated, "She's coming around," (Name) let out a groan as she opened her eyes, only to immediately close them again, "Open your eyes, (Name). I need to see if you have a concussion or not."

 

   "I can already deny that. You don't need to waste your time with the pupil check thing," she said, her voice laced heavily with annoyance.

 

   "What happened?" Natasha asked, already growing impatient with the useless exchange.

 

   "What happened is these two  _idiots_ ," (Name) began, "Decided it'd be fun to throw tools near a door!"

 

   "I'd just like to say, for the record, that I was not the one throwing tools," Tony interjected, prompting an eye-roll from Bruce.

 

   "And who's fault was that?" she quipped, "You texted me saying, and I quote, 'I poked the Banner. Help.'"

 

   Steve gave Tony his best 'Captain America is Disappointed' scowl, "Really Tony?"

 

   "What? Are we really not going to talk about how Bruce threw a blowtorch so hard that it gave (Name) a concussion?"

 

   "Don't have a concussion. Just a wicked headache," (Name) stated.

 

   "You want to talk?" Natasha raised an eyebrow, "How about we talk about how you've been directly involved in three of four incidents involving (Name) being injured. That seems like a great place to start."

 

   "Technically, only one of those is actually my fault," Tony said defensively.

 

   "I beg to differ," (Name) interjected, "Let's make a list shall we? You dropped me from at least 10 feet up, you broke Natasha's impeccable control which resulted in me getting tased, and now you've annoyed Bruce to the point of him accidently throwing a blowtorch at my face."

 

   "I'm sorry about that, (Name)," Bruce said, a guilty look on his face.

 

   "I know you are, Bruce. And it's alright, I know you didn't mean to."

 

   "Why does he get forgiveness?" Tony exclaimed.

 

   "Because he hasn't injured me three times!"

 

   "How many times do I have to say that only one of those times was actually my fault?"

 

   This argument went on for almost a full thirty minutes before Steve broke it up. He sent (Name) upstairs to rest, and then proceeded to chew Tony out. The gist of the lecture being:

 

   "Why can't you act like an adult for once?" Steve.

 

   "Because I'm not one. I'm an overgrown child in the body of a middle aged man. I thought you knew this already," Tony.

 

   Cue a frustrated sigh from Steve.

 

   Things got interesting at the team breakfast the next morning. Everyone minus Tony was sitting at the table, chatting away and laughing. None of them mentioned the giant bruise blue splotch that decorated the center of her forehead. That was true until Tony joined the conversation.

 

   He sat down with his coffee. When his eyes landed on (Name) he did a double take before a playful smirk made it's way onto his face, "Wow. Blue really suits you there, (Name)."

 

   A few seconds later, the salt shaker made acquaintance with Tony's face, which sent everyone into a fit of laughter. 

**Author's Note:**

> I'm almost to the end of this series. I have two people left to do, Steve and Thor. But, I've been pondering the idea of doing some for more minor characters (ex: Loki, Fury, Maria, etc.).  
> What are your thoughts?   
> Please let me know in the comments a character you'd like me to do, if there are any.


End file.
